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I met trombonist Clifton Anderson initially in Cambridge, Massachusetts; he was part of the Sonny Rollins band. I asked him if he would be open to meeting and chatting about jazz and culture, and we agreed to do this in New York City. The following exchange took place one glorious summer afternoon in 1991 in the court rd of Lincoln Center. A Henry Moore sculpture residing behind us, like some large, quiet Buddha observing life as it moved through the courtyard, was our silent host.
Snitzer: Well, we might as well begin this interview even though we're stuck in traffic on west whatever street this is, with horns blowing and cabbies cursing-a usual day in the Big Apple. So, Clifton, talk with me about your music and why you are a jazz performer.
Anderson: Well, sure, but there is a lot that goes into that. Actually I started playing... I guess you know I'm Sonny Rollins's nephew, and he really gave me my first trombone when I was seven years old.
Snitzer: No, I didn't know that.
Anderson: He gave me my first trombone after I went to see a movie, The Music Man, with Dick VanDyke, and there was a scene in there... seventy-six trombones lead the big parade, and I saw that and I was a kid and I immediately fell in love with the trombone, so my mother told Sonny and Sonny bought me a trombone, a little practice horn. I really didn't appreciate it at that time, and I guess I used it more against the wall. I then played drums, saxophone. I was musically inclined, but I just didn't have a focus yet, until I got into junior high school. At that point I met up with other kids, Bronx-Borough-wide, who could play the instrument, and they inspired me to take the trombone seriously.
About the same time another friend of the family got me a J. J. Johnson recording, and I had never heard a trombone sound like that. I couldn't understand how he got a trombone to sound like that. At that time I also wasn't sure I really wanted to play jazz, although I listened to and enjoyed jazz and other music coming through my home.
My...